Video: Chinese dad forces son to walk nearly naked through snow

Move over Tiger Mom. There’s a new parent in town whose parenting tactics are far more strict and far more shocking. In fact, this father who calls himself Eagle Dad makes Amy Chua seem like a softie. His idea to force his barely clothed child to walk through the snow seems downright cruel and disturbing, and the video footage of this below is painful to watch.

This poor child was forced to walk in the snow without his clothes on.

He Liesheng, a Chinese father who calls himself Eagle Dad, has sparked outrage by posting a video of his 4-year-old son sobbing and shivering while running through the snow in only his underwear and shoes. The family lives in China but the video was filmed while they were vacationing in New York.

Liesheng sees this activity as character-building and strength-training. His son was born premature and is physically weak, and Eagle Dad thinks this exercise will toughen up the child.

But the poor kid, nicknamed Duoduo, is clearly suffering, and it’s hard to imagine that he won’t walk away from this emotionally scarred. In the video, he is chasing after his father and begging to be picked up. The father offers no comfort and only yells at the child to lie in the snow. It’s downright heartbreaking to watch.

“It’s tough for me, too, when he cried out for my comfort,” father He Liesheng told CNN. “But I believe in ‘no pain, no gain.’ Like an eagle, I push my child to the limit so he can learn how to fly.”

The video has been viewed online thousands of times and when CNN picked up the footage today, the video spread like wildfire, sparking outrage in its path.

Chinese parenting has come under scrutiny ever since Yale professor Amy Chua described her strict approach to raising children as “Chinse parenting:” in the “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom.” But Liesheng says his parenting style is different from Chua’s because he respects his son.

Like Chua, Eagle Dad has plans to publish a book—though it’s hard to imagine that anyone will buy it. The consensus seems to be that this father is mean and cruel and his parenting tactics are on the verge of child abuse. Many are also quick to point out that Eagle Dad isn’t representative of Chinese parenting, and some are demanding that government officials stop this father who seems to be abusing his son as a way to get attention.

All the criticism and outrage is falling on deaf ears. “I’ve always felt Chinese parents spoil their only child too much,” Liesheng told CNN. “We don’t expose them to nature enough and they get weaker and less competitive compared to foreign children.”